Hi all,
A new version of PixInsight has been just released and is now available to all users: 1.8.3.1115 for FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X (10.8 and later), and Windows.
Build 1115 is a maintenance release intended to stabilize the platform in preparation to important new modules and scripts that we plan to release during the next months. We encourage you to update all your installations as soon as possible.
How to Install the ReleaseThis version is not available through the update system. You have to download the appropriate installation package(s) for your platform(s) from our Software Distribution system:
https://pixinsight.com/dist/Simply uninstall your current version and install the new one:
FreeBSD and Linux: PixInsight installation packages are gzip-compressed tar archives (.tar.gz). To install one of these archives, extract its full contents on any directory, preferably on one located under your home directory. Then become root and run the installer program from a terminal. For complete information on the PixInsight Linux/UNIX installer program, see this forum post:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=6336.0Mac OS X: Uncompress the .zip archive on your /Applications folder. Starting from version 1.8.3, there are important changes in the way PixInsight is distributed on Mac OS X. Please see the following forum post for more information:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7670.0Windows: We provide standard Windows installation packages. To install one of these packages, first you must
uninstall the version that you have currently installed. Then launch the package executable file and follow the instructions. Once installed, you'll have a new entry on your Start > All Programs menu (or equivalent item on Windows 8), namely PixInsight Platform, where you'll find an option to launch the PixInsight Core application.
Main Bug FixesThis version fixes most confirmed bugs in the previous builds, plus a large number of minor bugs and performance issues that we have discovered through exhaustive stress testing. Here is a list with the most important bug fixes:
* Core Application: Fixed some screen rendering issues on Windows 8. See the original bug report on PixInsight Forum:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7546.0These issues are caused by a bug in the Qt library that was first reported back in 2010 and still remains unfixed:
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-15367The screen rendering artifacts are a side effect of child window translucency, which does not work on Mac OS X and is also causing problems on Windows 8. Since version 1.8.3 of the PixInsight Core application, translucent workspace child windows only work reliably on X11 (Linux and FreeBSD). This feature is disabled by default on Mac OS X and Windows (you can enable it on Windows with Preferences and see if it works well for you).
* Core Application: Fixed a problem with write-locked masks after applying a geometric transformation to a masked image.
* Core Application: Scripts specified with -r command line arguments were always executed as JavaScript scripts. Console shell scripts (.cmd) are now recognized and executed correctly when specified from the command line.
* Core Application: Initialization scripts specifiedf with --startup-script command line arguments were being parsed incorrectly (the last slash directory separator before the file name was being ignored). This has been fixed.
* Script Editor: The Execute > Compile PIDoc menu command was not working on Windows because the path to the PIDoc compiler script was not enclosed by quotes. This problem has been fixed.
* JavaScript Runtime: The constructor of the Timer object, namely:
Timer( Number intervalSecs, Boolean periodic )was swapping its parameters internally, so it was not working correctly. This is now fixed.
* Module Manager: The Manage Modules dialog was not listing installed modules sorted by module name. This is fixed.
* NoiseGenerator process: The Poisson distribution option was not working correctly (the generated noise was actually Gaussian). Poisson noise is now generated correctly. In addition, noise generation now tends to preserve the expected value of the target image.
Main New FeaturesThis is a partial list with the most important new features in PixInsight Core 1.8.3.1115:
* New parallel swap storage scheme for SSD and virtual RAM drives. PixInsight supports parallel swap access since version 1.4, back in 2007, where each swap file can be distributed throughout several physical disk drives for fast parallel I/O operations. Since version 1.8.3, multithreaded swap storage can also be performed on individual SSDs and RAM drives for improved performance. See the following forum thread for more information:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7644.0* New PixInsight distribution on Mac OS X. PixInsight is now distributed on Mac OS X nearly the same way as it is on FreeBSD, Linux and Windows. Instead of a single application bundle (PixInsight.app), the PixInsight distribution consists of a base PixInsight folder where all executables, modules, scripts and support files are stored on a common set of subdirectories. The PixInsight Core executable is a regular application bundle, namely PixInsight.app, located on the base PixInsight folder. See this forum thread for more information:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7670.0* Integration of
dcraw version 9.22 (released 2014 July 3).
* Integration of the
LittleCMS color management engine version 2.6.
* Image properties can now be stored in image files. This is now implemented by the FITS format support module, which allows embedding arbitrary image properties as FITS extensions. Storable image properties are supported by the FileFormat, FileFormatImplementation and FileFormatInstance PCL classes, as well as the FileFormat and FileFormatInstance core JavaScript objects.
* View properties can now be stored in projects. This improves the overall performance of the PixInsight platform by avoiding unnecessary recalculations of statistical data. This feature, along with embeddable properties in image files, allows modules and scripts to define persistent data for improved performance and versatility.
* Statistics tool: New "unclipped" option. This option allows you to select between statistical properties computed for unsaturated pixels (clipped statistics, the default option) and values calculated for the whole set of image pixels including pure black and white pixels (unclipped statistics).
* StarAlignment: New read-only output properties:
Array StarAlignment.outputData[29] // StarAlignment.referenceStarX
Array StarAlignment.outputData[30] // StarAlignment.referenceStarY
Array StarAlignment.outputData[31] // StarAlignment.targetStarX
Array StarAlignment.outputData[32] // StarAlignment.targetStarYThese properties can be used from JavaScript scripts to access the set of star pair coordinates used for image registration, including local distortion correction if selected. The four properties are arrays of Number objects, representing star centroid positions in image coordinates.
* PixelMath: New symbol initialization functions:
symbol = property_value( [image=$T,] property ) The value of a vector or scalar property in the specified image.
symbol = property_defined( [image=$T,] property ) The symbol value will be either one, if the specified property is defined in the image, or zero if the property is not defined.
* New static methods of the Console core JavaScript object:
void Console.beginLog()
ByteArray Console.endLog()
ByteArray Console.logText()These methods allow scripts to retrieve console text contents dynamically.
* FITS file format: New format hints:
properties
no-propertiesBoth hints are available for input and output operations. They allow modules and scripts (and users applying them) to override global preferences for property storage in FITS image files.
I hope you enjoy this new release. Thank you for your continued support.
